Schizophrenia is one of the critical public health problems in the world; it is a disarray of thinking whereby an individual’s ability to perceive reality, emotional responses, thinking processes, sagacity and communication competence deteriorates to a greater extent that results to a serious impairment of the mental capacity. It is often associated with symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions (Beck, Rector and Stolar 2009). One of the most anecdotal types of schizophrenia is Paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenia medically known to pertain to mental disorders, marked by delusions, hallucinations, apathy, thinking abnormalities, and emotional problems. Patients with a paranoid schizophrenia hear voices, which are usually related to psychotic beliefs that other people are platting evil things against them or their close relatives (Haycock and Shaya, 2009).
John Nash, a character in the movie “A Beautiful Mind” suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, depicted from his paranoiac and erratic behavior, which was evident when he believed that the government was recruiting him to decipher the coded messages and review the pictures of the cold war enemies. Similarly, in the hospital, he kept on shouting and viewing the psychiatric doctors as the unit of soviet abductors. Despite his diligence and aptitude in mathematics, he was unable to teach some classes at Massachusetts Institute of Technology due to his hallucinations and imperative evaluation. He appeared normal and of sound mind, with an organized speech, contempt of his thoughts and mental illness, a common feature exhibited by patients suffering from paranoid schizophrenia (Haycock 2009).
According to Rathus (2011), people with paranoid schizophrenia, may develop practical delusions and numerous auditory hallucinations, accompanied with jealousy in which they believe that their spouses are cheating or, they are fickle. Likewise, they show signs of agitation, fear, confusion and may undergo a calamitous means of vivid hallucinations analogous to the descriptions that surround Nash’s behavior.
The development paranoid schizophrenia depends significantly on individual biological factors that consist of genetic vulnerability, over utilization of dopamine, enlarged ventricles, deficiency of gray matter, as well as viral infections and malnutrition. Similarly, the environmental stress also plays an enormous role in the causation of disorder, evidently when a person meets failure or disinterest; the patient can blame either himself or others for misfortunes. In the movie, we see Nash losing interest in washing the baby and walks away only to set up an ‘office’ by the road side because of his frustrations. The choice of blaming oneself may amount to loads of precipitous drop in self-esteem and become more paranoid. Blaming others may enable one to restore self-esteem but simultaneously sow the bitter seed of paranoia, (Beck, Rector and Stolar 2009). This is clearly seen in John Nash when he consistently point fingers at the government for enlisting him in the investigation that are life threatening. Moreover, he cites that the government is the key constraint to his problems.
The onset of paranoid schizophrenia tends to come later than other schizophrenia and, in schizophrenics occurring for the first time, similarly, it immensely depends on the age and gender factor. Munro (1999) cites that the average female schizophrenics were likely to experience a later onset on average than males, but an increasing rate of onset of schizophrenia is due after menopause; in the male, the disorder is likely to commence at an early age. Making diagnosis for paranoid schizophrenia especially for late onset has generated semantic problems that have become difficult to treat. Nevertheless, with the realization of science, the use of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and International Statistical Classification of Disease (ICD), have defined a concept that enhances an easy diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Murray (2003) affirms that the criterion of a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) diagnosis of schizophrenia increase the proportion of insidious onsets and eliminates acute on set psychoses. This sets better ground for the diagnosis of the disorder that is practically based on the hallucination signs and delusion disorders, and as a matter of fact can lead to treatment of the mental illness.
Just like the other types of schizophrenia, the treatment of paranoid schizophrenia admits a lot of therapy and medication, and qualified, psychiatrists need to facilitate better treatment, good medications, correct dosage and approaches for monitoring the benefits and possible side effects of the medication, (Haycock 2009). One of the most popular and most effective therapies is insulin coma (or shock) therapy; the therapy that Nash was subjected to, essentially regarded on the induction of a hypoglycemic coma in the form of a shock to the system of the patient. The method was introduced in the 1930s by Manfred Sakel with the intention of replacing the then existing methods of curbing paranoid schizophrenia like the neuroleptic methods. The induction of the hypoglycemic coma was to reduce the blood sugar level of the patient in order to improve metabolism. The other form of medication, is the use of antipsychotic drugs; a class of drugs that suppress or alleviate primarily positive psychotic symptoms for instance hallucination and delusion, are one of the major treatments for this mental illness. In the movie, Nash is put on antipsychotic drugs as means of alleviating the constant hallucinations that were the mechanism of this drugs vastly depend on the receptors cells of the brain that are associated with psychotic symptoms. The drugs block certain receptor sites for the neurotransmitter DOPAMINE, particularly the D2 which is the sole mechanism to reduce psychotic symptoms (Noll 2007). Despite the benefits of these drugs, they are always accompanied by severe side effects, which include a higher risk of developing of leucopenia, abnormal low white blood cell counts, diabetes and hyperglycemia. Moreover, the drugs also interfere with sexual functionalism and emotional behavior of an individual in that most of the patients become sexually inactive and emotionally detached from their family members or spouses as portrayed by John Nash; he considerably ignored the wife Alicia, and never made any advances to her, apart from that, he was emotionally unbound to his wife.
According to Noll (2007), the treatment offered is always accompanied with a lot of frustration and pain especially with the insulin shock therapy. These conditions facilitate the withdrawal of patient from the therapy and medication which pose as a great danger to them since the probability of the paranoid schizophrenia to reoccur is much higher and can initiate the regression of the psychosis, which is conversantly depicted by John Nash. His mental illness regenerated after he stopped taking his medication and stashed his pills. Fully recovery from this mental illness is, quite a challenge and few cases have been reported. However, many patients learn to live with the abnormality as they cling to their medications and therapy which, as a matter of Nash and Alicia did.
Paranoid schizophrenia has caused many calamitous and catastrophic impacts on people’s life on a daily basis, for instance loss of job, abandonment by family, madness and even death. The diagnosis and treatment of the disorder has become a key issue in medical and research institutes, though the unveiling of different types of medication a therapy has vastly helped in the control and better management of the mental disorder. Full recovery from the disorder has proven to be a core synchronizing problem, however, lucrative means of survival and better ideologies to cub the disorder has been initiated for instance, living with the abnormality and enhanced self realization.
Reference
Haycock, A. D, Shaya, K. E. (2009).The Everything Health Guide to Schizophrenia. Avon:
Adams Media inc
Munro, A. (1999). Delusional disorder: paranoia and related illnesses. Cambridge:
Cambridge university press
Murray, R. (2003). The epidemiology of schizophrenia. Cambridge: Cambridge university
press
Noll, R. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders. New
York: Fact on file inc
Rathus, A. S. (2011). Psych. California: Wadsworth
